


if you have a shot (you take it)

by sincerelybucky (orphan_account)



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Gen, Sad, as in not happy, at all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-20
Updated: 2013-07-20
Packaged: 2017-12-20 18:15:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/890323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/sincerelybucky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On Hercules Hansen’s twenty-second birthday he’s, <i>thank fuck</i>, on shore leave so decides (it’s not really a decision, rather a definite course of action) to make the most of it.</p><p>OR the one about Herc before, during, and after he has a son.</p>
            </blockquote>





	if you have a shot (you take it)

**Author's Note:**

> The Raleigh/Chuck really is only there if you squint. And it's more of a childhood hero-worship thing than anything else. Anyway, all mistakes are mine. Enjoy. Or don't. (:

On Hercules Hansen’s twenty-second birthday he’s, _thank fuck_ , on shore leave so decides (it’s not really a decision, rather a definite course of action) to make the most of it. His twenty-first was spent stuck sober and bored on a fremantle while the rest of the crew laughed good naturedly about all the booze and girls he was missing out on. Naturally, Herc’s twenty-second would have to make up it. And holy god, it did.

He met a girl. Her hair was darker than his, but she was just as tall and just as strong. If he was being honest, Herc couldn’t tell if they were fighting and just happened to be fucking or if it was the alcohol that was making everything seem so animalistic. But Jesus, he hadn’t even been sure he’d be able to get it up with the amount of shots he’d had. However, this girl, this _Call me Gwen_ , had been nothing if not enthusiastic (and persistent).

They’d exchanged numbers, but Herc didn’t have any intentions of calling her. He could tell by the reluctance in the way she swirled her pen across his palm that she felt the same. So needless to say he was more than surprised when two and a half months later, Gwen left him a voice mail with news so shocking he almost fell flat on his face.

_Look, Herc, I’m pregnant. I’ll carry the baby to term, yeah? But I don’t have room for a child in my life right now. So the way I see it, when it’s born either you take custody or I’m putting it up for adoption. Believe me, I’ve thought long and hard about it. It’s up to you what you want to do, but I don’t want,_ I need _, to focus on my own career and financial situation. There’s no room for a kid. I don’t know what went wrong that night, but it did, so we have to deal with this as maturely as possible. Call me back as soon as possible, yeah?_

Initially Herc had come to terms with the baby going up for adoption, but then he went with Gwen to an ultrasound and well, he’d never thought he’d have a proper shot at being a parent. So he took it.

He named his son Charles, after his Grandad who’d died as a prisoner of war in Singapore during the Second World War. 

Herc knew it would be tough, being a single father. Of course he didn’t resent Gwen, she’d made her feelings very clear from the beginning. It was just _really hard_ trying to explain to a bloody child that his mother hadn’t wanted him without blatantly saying, _your mother didn’t want you_. But nothing (literally nothing) had prepared him for trying to raise a bratty ten year old during a fucking alien apocalypse. 

Herc was drafted for the ranger program pretty early on and to compensate for all the extra time he’d be spending away from Chuck (not to mention his potential –re: probable- death) he bought him a dog. 

Chuck had grown up with a cat; a mangy thing that yowled almost constantly and scratched everyone except Chuck. It had run away during the confusion and terror after the first kaiju attack on Sydney. Chuck was devastated; Herc was a little relieved (something which Chuck would punch his dad in the arm for after their first drift).

It was a given that when Chuck was old enough, he’d start training to be his dad’s co-pilot. When Chuck found out that General Stacker had a fifteen year old daughter in the program and had been _for a year_ , the subtle stalling Herc had been attempting was thrown out the window. Chuck was in a week later, and if his scores were to be believed, he was good, like, _really good_.

“Do you think I’ll meet them?” Chuck asked one night when Herc had caught him watching a late night talk show featuring the Becket brothers. “They’re so cool.”

Herc squinted at the screen; they were boys, young enough to still be students, and it made his skin crawl to think of the rangers they’d lost already. They should be out partying like the kids had when he was their age (he’d put that all aside when he’d joined the Royal Navy and become a father, but that was his choice; the apocalypse hadn’t been a choice, it had been a deadweight thrust upon the shoulders of the young and able). 

“Maybe.” He’d replied, _if they live long enough._

Herc did a run with _Gipsy Danger_ a few weeks later. 

Chuck had pleaded, “Take me with you! I’ll co-pilot and after they can teach us some of their tricks. I want to meet Raleigh.”

Herc left him at the shatterdome after firmly telling him to take care of Max and to eat his vegetables.

“ _I’m not a child!_ ”

Herc has to remind himself that everyone makes their own choices . . . that he taught his son this from day one.

And yet when he closes his eyes he can still hear Chuck’s voice, distorted by system malfunction, but still strong with conviction, _My father always said, if you have a shot, you take it._

On nights when the loss makes his heart feel like it’s splitting open, when even Max’s soft and snuffling presence can’t comfort him, Herc stares at his palm where Gwen wrote her number and wishes he kept it. If only just to tell her that her son was a hero.

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact #1: Chuck really was born exactly nine months and four days after Herc's twenty second birthday. Based on this: http://kieki.tumblr.com/post/55631434970/
> 
> Fun fact #2: "fremantle" is the type of ship the HMAS Hammersley from Sea Patrol was so I decided that was the ship I wanted Herc serving on.
> 
> Fun (or not so fun) fact #3: the POW camp I was referring to was Changi.
> 
> Feel free to say Hi on tumblr http://jkeats.tumblr.com/ask


End file.
